The Observer has a very good article today about the US's hunt for missing weapons of mass destruction, and the bitter wrangles between the multitudes of intelligence agencies about whose fault it is that they haven't been found / never existed in the first place. I found this following excerpt particularly fascinating:
'Rumsfeld set up his own intelligence agency because he didn't like the intelligence he was getting,' said Larry Korb, director of national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. 'He doesn't like Powell's approach, a typical diplomat, too cautious.'
Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but Colin Powell is a military guy. He's not a diplomat by formation. According to his official biography, he has an honours degree in Geology and an MBA. Not exactly the standard diplomat CV.
The increasingly unescapable conclusion is that biased, politicised intelligence was deliberately prioritised over the established intelligence sources because it was telling Rumsfeld, and therefore Bush and Blair, what they wanted to hear: that there was a reason for going to war with Iraq.
Except that, er, it now appears there wasn't.
